


soot

by stupidbadgers



Category: Naruto
Genre: KakaIru Week 2020, M/M, Prompt: Pets, also iruka tries to cook, that's all that matters really, there's a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidbadgers/pseuds/stupidbadgers
Summary: The fluffball on the table continued to stare at him.“Why are you here?” he asked it.A smallmrowwas the only response he received.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 7
Kudos: 87
Collections: KakaIru Week 2020





	soot

**Author's Note:**

> day 5, prompt: pets
> 
> enjoy~~

“Iruka, what’s that?” Kakashi asked, stopping dead inside the window of their apartment. Sat in the middle of the coffee table was a small, fluffy black cat. It stared at him with intense green eyes. 

Iruka’s head popped around the doorway to the kitchen, his hair slightly disheveled. A streak of flour was across his forehead. 

“Welcome home!” he said brightly. Turning his head back to the kitchen, he exclaimed, “shit!” 

Kakashi blinked. He didn’t know what he had just walked into, but he did know he was exhausted. His “easy” C-rank escort had turned into an A-rank ambush nightmare and though he wasn’t wounded (a miracle really) nor chakra exhausted enough to warrant the hospital (another miracle), Kakashi was very tired. Of course his luck would run out just as he arrived home. 

The fluffball on the table continued to stare at him. 

“Why are you here?” he asked it. 

A small _mrow_ was the only response he received. He narrowed his eyes before walking further into the room, edging around the table, giving it a wide berth. The bright green eyes followed his every movement. The kitten turned itself around to continue staring at Kakashi as he made his way into the kitchen. The look unnerved him, like it was seeing past all of Kakashi’s internal defenses and straight into his soul. 

He tried to shake off the feeling as he rounded the corner. Upon entering the kitchen, he stopped dead in his tracks for the second time. It was a disaster. Flour seemed to coat every surface of the room, there were splatters of what Kakashi assumed to be egg in various spots, and Iruka was in the middle of it all. Something spattered and popped on the stove, which caused Iruka to hop back before stepping cautiously closer, poking at whatever was in the pan with a wooden spatula. 

“What... happened?” Kakashi asked, exhaustion filling the space between his words. 

Iruka whipped around, his face red. 

“I decided to try to make something new tonight, but um... it’s not going quite as planned,” he replied, his free hand scratching the side of his nose where his scar sat. The familiar nervous habit soothed Kakashi just a little. 

“Whatever you’re cooking is burning,” Kakashi said, gesturing to the pan. He could smell the burnt air through his mask. 

“Shit!” Iruka said again. 

Kakashi stepped forward, careful to avoid the splatters on the floor and looked at whatever was in the pan. 

“You’ve got the heat up too high. It causes the outside to cook too fast, not allowing the inside to cook. Were you making...” Kakashi squinted at the burnt remains, “tonkatsu?” 

Iruka sighed, “I guess it’s something that you can even recognize what it was supposed to be.” 

Kakashi closed his eye, shaking his head slightly. Iruka liked to cook, he just... wasn’t very good at it. There were a few things he made excellently, but beyond those, he was sort of hopeless when it came to cooking. Baking, however, that was an entirely different beast. Iruka could out bake anyone. 

He placed his hands on Iruka’s arms, turning Iruka to face him. The man hung his head shamefully, pieces of loose hair falling forward. 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll clean this up and then order take-out. No harm done,” Kakashi said softly. He placed a gentle kiss on Iruka’s forehead. 

Iruka shook his head, turning and starting to move dishes to the sink, “no, I'll clean up. You just got back from a mission, you must be tired.” 

“It’ll go faster if we work together, which means I’ll have more time to cuddle up next to you.” 

“I can’t argue that,” Iruka said, looking over his shoulder at his partner. “I missed you.” 

“Missed you too.” 

_Mrow_. 

The noise shouldn’t have startled Kakashi—he was a high-ranking jounin, best of the best—but his head whipped around to see the little black ball of fluff sitting in the doorway staring at him intently. 

“Uh, Iruka?” 

Iruka hummed at him absentmindedly, focused on cleaning the dishes. 

“What is that?” 

Iruka finally looked at him, “what is—? Oh! That’s Soot.” 

Kakashi’s eyebrow disappeared beneath his hitai-ate, “Soot?” 

“Yep!” 

“And why is it here?” 

Iruka cleaned his hands off and dried them before going to pick up the little fluffball, scratching its cheeks and making cooing noises at it. 

“Because he lives here,” he said, before his voice changed to direct his attention at the kitten. “Don’t you, Sooty? Yeah, you like scritches right there, don’t you? Hey! Don’t bite me when I'm trying to give you scratches!” 

Kakashi’s eye widened. He didn’t realize that Iruka was a cat person, that he wanted an animal. They already had ninken; eight of them, to be precise, in this very small apartment. Oh kami, the ninken. They were not going to like this. 

“Shouldn’t we have discussed this? Together?” Kakashi asked cautiously. He didn’t want Iruka to think he hated the animal. He didn’t know how he felt about the kitten, just that it gave him the creeps how it looked at him. 

Iruka turned to Kakashi, Soot cuddled up close to his face, “you weren’t home to talk about it. I made an executive decision. Soot needed a home and I decided we could provide it.” 

“Executive decision,” Kakashi said faintly. 

“Besides, look at this cute little face! How could you not love him immediately?” Iruka held the kitten out to Kakashi. When it got close enough, the kitten stuck its paw out and gently placed it on Kakashi’s masked cheek. 

“Aw, Soot likes you!” Iruka cooed just as Soot flexed his claws into Kakashi’s face. 

“Fuck! What the hell did it do that for?” Kakashi touched his cheek, checking to see if he was bleeding. 

Iruka stifled a laugh, “oh don’t be a baby, you’re not even bleeding. He was just showing you his claws.” 

“In my face!” 

Iruka put the demonspawn down and gently kissed Kakashi’s cheek. The claws had barely even scratched the skin through the fabric of the mask. 

“I don’t trust it,” Kakashi said, eyeing the kitten. It looked at him with those big green eyes as if it was the most precious thing in the world. That may work on Iruka, but it wasn’t going to work on Kakashi. 

“ _Soot_ ,” Iruka said pointedly, “will learn to behave. You behave too. Everything will be fine. And I already thought about the ninken. I think we should introduce each of them one on one, so Soot doesn’t become overwhelmed.” 

Kakashi turned back to cleaning, grunting in response. He didn’t think the ninken would like this. 

“Oh yeah, and he sleeps by my head.” 

“What?” Kakashi said. He was not comfortable with that demonspawn that close to him while he slept. 

Iruka blushed as he spoke, “I didn’t want him to be lonely at night and well, I was lonely. I said I missed you.” 

Kakashi’s heart melted a little. Fine, he would get used to this little monster if it meant Iruka was happy. 

“I guess we have a new pet,” Kakashi mumbled. Louder he said, “you’re explaining this to the ninken. They’re going to want steak as reparation for this."

**Author's Note:**

>  **EDIT:** my dear [menecio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/menecio/pseuds/menecio) drew soot!! i might have cried over how darling soot is in this picture! tysm and ilu menecio!! <3
> 
> need more soot in your life? have a small drabble about [the best alarm clock ever](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26543305/chapters/64932655). 
> 
> thank you for reading! 
> 
> stay safe and healthy! 
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://stupidbadgers.tumblr.com).


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